These are the most common health hazards in St. Clair County restaurants, report shows
Food preparation and supervision issues were among the most common health hazards that St. Clair County inspectors cited at restaurants and other establishments in the first quarter of the year, according to a report prepared for the health department.
The report came from the data management company that publishes St. Clair County’s health inspection results in an online database. The Belleville News-Democrat obtained a copy through a public records request.
It analyzed how often food establishments were cited for specific violations that regulators say carry a greater risk of causing food poisoning. Other health code violations are considered less likely to affect the safety of the food they serve, according to Sharon Valentine, who oversees inspections for the St. Clair County Health Department as director of environmental programs.
“Looking at the major food-related allergies and the ways that people can become ill from eating food, it includes cooking to the correct temperature; it includes cooling correctly; it includes making certain that you’re storing correctly, that foods are being handled appropriately and that people are washing their hands,” Valentine said.
“Dirty floors, walls and ceilings, we can all see. They’re not usually going to contribute to the safety of the food. How that food is handled is going to be the most important part.”
This graphic shows the health department report’s ranking of issues that can threaten customer health based on how often they were uncovered during inspections between Jan. 1 to March 31. The report mostly covered restaurants, but other establishments like convenience stores that serve food were also included in the analysis:
The report didn’t identify the places where these issues existed. But you can search the BND’s Metro-east Restaurant Inspection Database to find examples of these violations across St. Clair County.
The bolded phrases in the above graphic are what you should type into the database’s search bar. For example, typing “food-contact surfaces; cleaned and sanitized” will show you restaurants where kitchen equipment or utensils that touched or could touch food weren’t clean during a health inspection.
The database includes all restaurant inspection results through the end of April, and the BND plans to continue updating it monthly with new information.
This story was originally published May 6, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
